It took me about one minute to realize Novembers Doom's latest is a drastic improvement over their previous release. They have found that ideal balance between dark, melodic death and the pulsing, downbeat of doom, and do it with arrangements and production that is assertive yet fluid. For fans of deeply personal lyrics, Paul Kuhr has always been one of the best around, and he's as drastic as ever here. And to top it off, fans of Anneke van Giersbergen will find her doing an excellent guest appearance with Paul as well (and in the available video track)!

I'm sorry, I find this album overrated.
I think it's a good album but 2nd best of 2011 so far, no. Just my opinion.

I find the band's whole discography overrated , I mean the first few albums were MDB worship and the recent ones are just meh. "The Pale Haunt Departure" was great but the rest is just average to good imo

I think the reason for 'Melodic Death' being overrated is the fact that almost every other band these days get labeled 'Melodic Death', when clearly they're not. I'm concerned that people's opinions or votes are overly influenced by the constraints of the specific 'genres' and contents thereof.

In the top 20 of 2011? Definitally overrated. Like most Melodic death is these days. Sorry Fan boys

Yeah this is decent but I agree, it isn't Top 20 Material at all.

"Fan Boys" Do you realize most bands depend on their "fan boys" to make any kind of living with their art. "Fan boys" buy their records when they first come out, see their shows every time they are around and buy each new t- shirt allowing them to continue with their music. Show a little appreciation for the "fan boys" who keep this metal world alive and kicking. So what if they are a little obsessed with their favorite band. This is what makes metal great when you can support your favorite band!

This actually turned out to be a little short of awesome. Surprisingly good, though nothing new brought to the table. Still, the yin-yang approach worked out rather well. Shredding death metal with some more melodic, down-tempo doom moments.

Being the first album by this band that I've heard...I was both very impressed as well as disappointed with it. Most songs are good but there may be just some parts or sections of the songs that I felt were didn't quite work for me. I really cant explain this because I will be spinning this few more times definitely to truly understand this record. But overall, if what most older fans claim is true about how good this band is on their albums, I'm definitely gonna try them out.
Sorry for the longish sentences.

I'm not an expert, but this really is not Melodic Death Metal. Genre debate aside, I haven't listened to it enough to really rate it yet, the top 10 of 2011 debate in my head too. When compared to other releases I don't know :/ I found Devin Townsend's Deconstruction absolutely mindblowing but clearly most people don't since thats not even in the top 20.